"Given, this season, how rare it is to beat the Blackhawks, I want to congratulate them on that as well," Obama joked at the White House on Tuesday.

Obama, as he's mentioned a few times, is a Chicago sports fan; LA beat the Blackhawks, who have the league's best record at 24-4-3, on Monday night.

The Kings split their visit with the MLS champion LA Galaxy, who were making their second consecutive trip.

"This time they brought some company," Obama said.

LA's Cup run was something of a surprise, considering that they finished the regular season as the Western Conference's eighth seed. They took their first three series in five, four and five games before their six-game win over the Devils, and finished 10-1 on the road.

"These guys just kept winning game after game after game, and eventually the rest of the league took notice," Obama said.

All in all, it was a short, pleasant ceremony. There was no immediate word on whether Dustin Penner got to ask Obama his question about California state income tax, coach Darryl Sutter didn't appear to bring up the Keystone Pipeline, and goalie Jonathan Quick was in attendance—unlike his counterpart from the Boston Bruins last year.